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At the heart of personality is the need to feel a sense of being lovable without having to qualify for that acceptance.

Paul Tournier

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Paul Tournier
Age: 88 †
Born: 1898
Born: May 12
Died: 1986
Died: October 7
Physician
Physician Writer
Genève
Sense
Without
Need
Feel
Qualify
Feels
Lovable
Needs
Approval
Heart
Acceptance
Personality

More quotes by Paul Tournier

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What happens then is like what happens when we separate a jigsaw puzzle into its fuve hundred pieces: The over-all picture disappears. This is the state of modern medicine: It has lost the sense of the unity of man. Such is the price it has paid for its scientific progress. It has sacrificed art to science.
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The real meaning of travel, like that of a conversation by the fireside, is the discovery of oneself through contact with other people, and its condition is self-commitment in the dialogue.
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The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.
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Woe to the man who tries to remain objective and to maintain a wide perspective: every one will label him as an enemy.
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The more refined and subtle our minds, the more vulnerable they are.
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Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.
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That is what marriage really means helping one another to reach the full status of being persons, responsible and autonomous beings who do not run away from life.
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Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.
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We do not posses God. We find him periodically.
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Let us not seek to bring religion to others, but let us endeavor to live it ourselves.
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The most tragic consequence of our criticism of a man is to block his way to humiliation and grace, precisely to drive him into the mechanisms of self justification and into his faults instead of freeing him from them. For him, our voice drowns the voice of God.
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It is quite clear that between love and understanding there is a very close link...He who loves understands, and he who understands loves. One who feels understood feels loved, and one who feels loved feels sure of being understood.
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Most illnesses do not, as is generally thought, come like a bolt out of the blue. The ground is prepared for years through faulty diet, intemperance, overwork, and moral conflicts, slowly eroding the subject's vitality.
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If there had been no fear of failure, neither would there be any joy in success.
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The really important thing in life is not the avoidance of mistakes, but the obedience of faith. By obedience, the man is led step by step to correct his errors, whereas nothing will ever happen to him if he doesn't get going.
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Christian faith does not involve repressing one's anxiety in order to appear strong. On the contrary, it means recognizing one's weakness, accepting the inward truth about oneself, confessing one's anxiety, and still to believe, that is to say that the Christian puts his trust not in his own strength, but in the grace of God.
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We are always looking for a grand program of action full of great ideas, when the thing is to begin by obeying the little ideas.
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The price that has to be paid for finding truly personal life is a very high one. It is a price in terms of the acceptance of responsibility. And the awareness of responsibility inevitably leads either to despair or to confession and grace.
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Our task is to live our personal communion with Christ with such intensity as to make it contagious.
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...the highest sign of friendship is that of giving another the privilege of sharing your inner thought.
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